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Video: Century Old Coney Island Hot Dog (Hoax!)
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 25, 2010
Modified Feb 25, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 25, 2010
Modified Feb 25, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW] Yesterday we saw evidence that the city had begun demolition at Feltman's kitchen, the last remnant of hot dog inventor Charles Feltman's Coney Island empire. This building is where Nathan Handwerker worked slicing hot dog rolls before going on to start Nathan's Famous. As if confirming the proud history of the place, archeologists have found a hot dog that may be as old as 140 years old, encased in ice. They also found an original Feltman's receipt in the ice! some local hucksters engaged in some old-timey Boardwalk hokum. CNN has the scoop hoax:
This old dog will be preserved and displayed at the Coney Island History Project, which will open for the season Memorial Day weekend. Will the "139-year-rule" keep visitors from taking a bite?
UPDATE: Fine, we fell for it, but so did CNN, not that that's saying much. The Post gleefully reports that the network, which picked up the story form a local news channel, was duped by the Coney Island History Project, which created the hoax to promote their museum. "The recent discovery by an amateur archaeologist... was a publicity stunt in the grand tradition of Coney Island ballyhoo," said Tricia Vita, spokeswoman for the history project. "I was surprised in the beginning at how many people believed it was true. But after reading all the buzz about it on Twitter and the Internet, I’m not really that surprised because people want to believe these types of things are true."
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feltman's kitchen
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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